King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown

by AGD Interactive · King's Quest series

2001 · PC, Mac

King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown, a revolutionary game designed by Roberta Williams and first released in 1984, epitomizes the classic adventure gaming experience. This game was the first of its kind which allowed the player to interact in an entirely original 2.5D world, and can be credited as the game that started graphic adventure gaming on the PC. Though the original AGI parser-based version is outdated and primitive-looking by today's gaming standards, in 1984 it was revolutionary. King's Quest I was not only groundbreaking, but also history in the making. It was followed by seven sequels bearing the King's Quest title. In 1990, Sierra released a remake of King's Quest I, taking advantage of newer technology and graphics (using their SCI engine, 16 color EGA graphics, sound card, and mouse support). Unfortunately, this version ended up being a total market failure. As a result, it was highly unlikely that Sierra ever had thoughts of making an even further updated Point-and-Click version of King's Quest I to match later games in the series. This is where we at AGDI decided to step in. Our aim was to remake King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown to the same level of quality as seen in Sierra's King's Quest V. We believe that the enhanced gaming experience for fans has justified our months of unpaid hard work. Our understanding is that the big companies stopped focusing on the adventure genre because, given the huge budget required to produce adventure games, it didn't prove as lucrative as other genres which were faster and cheaper to develop. Yet, we're hoping that by bringing back such classics adventure titles, we can prove that there is still huge fan interest in Point-and-Click adventure games and a successful market out there. This is our contribution to try to bring classic adventure games, as we used to know them, back to public attention, providing an alternative gaming experience for players who prefer to use their brains to solve puzzles over quick reflexes. During the first month of AGDI releasing our King's Quest I remake in August, 2001, over 5,000 copies were downloaded! In the first year, that number jumped to nearly half a million. The first add-on voice pack was downloaded hundreds of times in a period of just a few days, and thousands of times over the span of several months! It's obvious that there are still numerous adventure gaming fans, around the world, yearning to play more titles from this fantastic genre. AGDI's King's Quest I remake, and all of our future projects, are our gift to the fans of the adventure gaming community.